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Theatre: The Exorcist and The Elvis Dead

Special effects make horror perfect for the stage — so The Exorcist is bound to turn heads

Stephen Armstrong

Gory be: the horror techniques of the 1973 film have been reimaginedROBERT DAY

The Sunday Times, October 22 2017, 12:01am

It’s hard to think of the 1973 horror movie The Exorcist without conjuring up spinning heads, projectile green vomit, unfortunate uses for a crucifix and a demonic voice telling a priest his mother had an interesting hobby in hell. Which is possibly why the movie doesn’t get the respect it deserves.

The film’s make-up techniques and special effects spawned the modern horror genre — George Romero’s 1968 zombie debut, Night of the Living Dead, for instance, saw crusty cosmetics and trickles of blood as entirely sufficient to convey a reanimated corpse — and it has sold more tickets than The Empire Strikes Back, Avatar, The Godfather and Forrest Gump.